Crude rebound eases markets, stocks hit record high

Rodrigo Campos

5 Min Read

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil rose on Friday, bouncing back from levels not seen since November, on the likelihood key producers could extend output cuts beyond an agreed-on June deadline, while U.S. stocks closed at a record high.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

On Wall Street, the energy sector .SPNY posted its strongest daily showing in seven weeks as stocks tracked the price of oil higher, sending the benchmark S&P 500 to a record closing high.

Stocks also got support from better-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls data. Job growth rebounded sharply last month with 211,000 positions added and the national unemployment rate down to near a 10-year low of 4.4 percent.

The jobs data is “a little bit more confirmation that perhaps the economy is OK,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. “That probably is something that helped the broader market.”

Markets were rattled overnight as crude initially stumbled further, its weekly decline close to 10 percent at one point, but comments from Saudi Arabia’s OPEC governor Adeeb Al-Aama helped put a floor under oil prices.

“There’s an emerging consensus among participating countries on the need to extend the production agreement reached last year,” the official told Reuters.

OPEC, Russia and other producers have agreed to curb production by 1.8 million barre1ls per day until June 30. OPEC ministers next meet on May 25.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 55.47 points, or 0.26 percent, to end at 21,006.94, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.77 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,399.29 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 25.42 points, or 0.42 percent, to 6,100.76.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.69 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.46 percent after touching a record high.

CRUDE REBOUND

Both Brent LCOc1 and U.S. crude CLc1 fell almost 4 percent overnight on mounting concerns about oversupply. But weekly declines of close to 10 percent were all but halved during New York trading hours.

Concerns over a slowdown in China have hit other commodities, with Chinese iron ore futures DCIOcv1 down more than 10 percent to this week’s low and copper CMCU3 touching its lowest since January.

Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey, said the slide in commodities would not necessarily drag other markets lower “as long as you accept the thesis that it is all about supply.”

“But if you add a slowdown in China,” she said, “it becomes a demand story.

U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 2.09 percent to $46.47 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $49.45, up 2.21 percent on the day.

The U.S. dollar hit its lowest in roughly six months against the euro EUR= at $1.0994, down 0.01 percent. The strong U.S. jobs data failed to shake investors’ bullishness toward the euro ahead of the second round of France’s presidential election on Sunday.